Day 38- Home Sweet Home

I think we each had our own "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home" experience today. We left Jon & Michele's at 9:30 this morning.  Once we got on the road the kids, particularly Duncan, kept asking,"How much longer?" Now, we have driven ten hour days and they never asked us that!  Knowing that we were less than 300 miles from home was such a tease during the entire ride.  We stopped twice, once for coffees and bagels and once for the restrooms.  We arrived home at 2:00.  My aunt had stayed at our house while we were gone.  We arrived home to a very clean house, with milk and food in the fridge! We had a laundry basket full of mail to go through and lots of unpacking to get done.

Douglas will all of our gear on the front lawn!

We unloaded the car and laid everything out on the lawn to take inventory of just what and how much we had packed into our car! We certainly had a car full to unload not to mention the three camping chairs, propane grill, and one sleeping bag that we left in the RV with my parents!  So far tonight I have done three loads of laundry, Len has washed the car, we have done a load of dishes in the dishwasher, and we watered and weeded the flower gardens.  Duncan was happy to be back with his cell phone. (He forgot it at one of the cabins we stayed in and they mailed it home for him.) He already has a friend coming over tomorrow for a sleepover!  Douglas was happy to see all of his artwork hanging around the house and to be able to watch some TV!
This afternoon and tonight we have been visited by Jeff and Kassie, Donny & Rebecca, and Barbara and Michael.  Barbara very graciously showed up with dinner for us! After sleeping on an air mattress and in guest beds and hotel beds, Len and I are very happy to be in our king size bed with the air conditioner on!  Although we have spent all summer together, and I mean together, all four of us are laying down in our bed watching the Olympics together!  Before the trip Len and I joked that we'd either come back as a totally bonded family or we'd be in divorce court!  I am happy to report we came back a very happy, cohesive family!
Here are a few stats from our trip:

• We were in 23 different states.
• We drove approximately 7,800 miles
• We went through grasslands, forests, desert,and prairies
• We camped in a tent 19 nights
• We stayed in a cabin two nights
• We stayed at family and friends 9 nights
• we stayed in hotels 8 nights
• We went through at least 5 boxes of granola bars and as many loaves of bread
• The average price of gas was approximately $3.40 a gallon and we filled up many times
• We had the oil changed twice while we were on the road
•  We went as high as 12,000 feet and as low as swimming in a river in a canyon
• We flew, drove, walked, paddled, and floated 
• We have a ton of pictures and videos and memories that are priceless

Day 37- Visiting with Jon & Michele and Castle Fun Center

Douglas driving his own go-kart!

Dunc putting the pedal to the metal!

Duncan on the bumper cars.

Tyler playing the motorcycle game.

Today was a perfect "last day" of our vacation! Unbelievably, we all slept until 9:00 or after this morning.  Actually, I think Len got up at 7:30 and read his book until we all got up. Everyone hung out in their pajamas until long after 11:00 this morning.  The kids had way too much screen time while the four adults visited.  We all made a breakfast of fruit salad, eggs, bacon, bagels and cream cheese not to mention lots of coffee! We pretty much just hung out and visited all day.  We laughed a ton about really stupid things. But we always follow those funny times with equally serious conversations about life, the kids, our jobs, our concerns, and successes. Before we knew it, it was 4:00 in the afternoon and we had done nothing but visit all day!  We had told the kids we would take them to the local "Fun Center" that morning.  At 4:00 we got a bit worried that the center would be closed.  Silly us.  The "Fun Center" was open until 11:00pm on a Sunday! So off we went at about 4:30.  In the meantime, Jon had to get ready to make the drive to Virginia tonight for meetings this week at his work's headquarters.  So we all drove to the fun center where we said our good-byes to Jon. He headed out and we headed in to have some fun! The Castle Fun Center is full of things for kids of all ages.  Each "activity" has its own price. So you pick out the activities that you want and put a credit on a card. Then each child takes a "credit card" to each activity where they swipe the card.  When your card is empty you either add more money or you are done.  The two older boys completely lucked out on this trip.  Duncan and Jake played 15 minutes of laser tag against some older teenagers.  They also did the go-karts and the bumper cars.  Douglas and Nathan were able to do the "free fall" which is a machine that shoots them into the air and comes down quickly so they feel a bit weightless.  They also did the mini go-karts.  Lastly, Tyler chose "ballocity" (the only thing he is old enough to do!) which is a room full of balls that you can shoot out of cannons.  While the younger kids waited for the older guys they "played" the arcade games pretty much by sitting on them or pretending to shoot things.  It worked for them and cost us nothing so that was just fine.  When we arrived home Michele, Len and I all got dinner while Jake and Duncan made brownies.  They did a great job following directions.  We all just finished up our desserts of warm brownies with ice cream.  Tonight will be a relatively early night for all of us.  Michele will get up and go to work in the morning.  Len, me and the kids will hang out with the boys until their sitter comes. Then we head out for the final five hour drive home!

Day 36- Arriving at The Branch House!

Jon & Len

Jake & Duncan

Douglas & Nathan

Me & Mic

Yahoo!  We have so much to celebrate today! We are in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, we are almost in New England, and we get to spend time with some very special people...Jon, Michele, Jacob, Nathan and Tyler Branch.  We drove about 350 miles today and arrived in Warwick, NY at around 3:15. We had a great afternoon visiting.  The kids did not need any warm up time at all.  We were here less than 5 minutes and all of the kids were off doing their thing.  Jon, Michele, Len and I got to visit for a while and then the four of us made dinner.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and a delicious zucchini and arugula salad.  Now we are watching the Olympics and hanging out! We are very happy to be here and I love that the kids are so comfortable here.  I was able to get photos of everyone except Tyler today.  I'll be sure to get him tomorrow!

Day 35- Driving, driving, driving

Dunc on the float trip

Swimming on a 101 degree day!

A happy cowboy eating ribs!

Today wan another 600 mile day.  The damn time change got us again!  We drove 9 hours but we are back in Eastern Standard time so we lost another hour!  We didn't get as far as we had hoped, but we are still closer than we were this morning!  Tonight we are in Harrisonburg, Va.  The GPS says we have another 350 miles tomorrow in order to get to Jon & Michele's.  We were hoping for 300 or less miles but there's nothing we can do now.  We simply forgot to figure in losing an hour.

At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

 Once again the kids were excellent travelers.  At one point Duncan even suggested we just drive the entire way so we could get to NY! The kids were up late last night.  They had a difficult time settling down knowing it was our last night at Brooke's.  I think the last time I went in to quiet them was 11:30.  Although it was frustrating last night, it paid off today because Douglas slept for about two hours in the car while Duncan quietly watched a movie. Leaving Brooke was tough this morning.  She has been a part of our family for years.  I don't really remember my childhood without her! Len and I have been scheming with Brooke to get them to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving.  We're enticing Brett with the hunting card!  Duncan has "offered" to go archery hunting with him if he comes up! I hope it happens. Although the ride has been long we did get a big break today.  The heat wave broke!  I think the highest we saw the thermometer go was 88 degrees.  That is a far cry from the 100+ days we've had.  We even drove through a couple of big thunderstorms.  The rain was creating tons of steam on the roads.  It wasn't easy driving but it was a cool sight.We pulled into our hotel at 7:20 pm. We were just in time to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Tomorrow it is up and at'em to get to Warwick, NY!  We didn't take any pictures today but I've included some fun ones from previous days....

Day 34- The Parthenon in Nashville

Dunc, Kolby & Douglas in front of the Parthenon

All of us together! Except Brett who was at work.

Another scorcher of a day!  It was 95 degrees by 10:00 this morning! Today we drove into Nashville to the Parthenon.  It is a life size replica that was built in 1897 for an international expo.  Nashville is known as the "Athens of the south."  Originally, it was built only for the expo and was not cared for afterward.  In 1920 a group decided that it was worth renovating. It is open to the public and acts as a museum to artwork and replicas of some of the Greek gods and goddesses. The kids were particularly interested because this is where the movie Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief was filmed. They were disappointed that there wasn't more on the movie there but they were really into the enormous statue of Athena that was in the upstairs hall of artifacts.  She had Medusa on her shield so she can turn people to stone and in her hand she held Nike, the  winged Goddess of Victory.  They were excited that they knew so much about Greek Mythology.  At one point Duncan leaned over and whispered,"Mom, what is up with these Greek people being naked all the time?  Did they really fight naked?" I wasn't really sure how to answer that so I sent him to Len!

The kids in front of the huge statue of Athena.

Brett helps Douglas shoot the bow & arrow

After the Parthenon we came back to Spring Hill and went swimming at a nearby pool.  Brooke's mom lent us passes to the facility and we stayed there for about three hours!  The pool was gorgeous.  It was not crowded and it was over sized with the deepest part being 5 ft. The kids played together all afternoon. Late this afternoon, while Brooke took Kolby to band and Sierra to piano lessons, Len and I did laundry and got the car organized for our last stretch for home.

Duncan showing off his skills!

Brett likes to do woodworking projects and he made himself a beautiful  bow.  After dinner he took the boys outside for a little target shooting with the bow and arrows.  Duncan has a real affinity for archery so he was pretty into it!  We'll have to set up a little shooting area for him when we get home. Tonight is our last night at Brooke's.  Tomorrow morning we leave and head for Warwick, NY.  It is a 15+ hour drive so we'll shoot for 9-10 hours.  We plan to arrive at our friend's, The Branches, house on Saturday.  We have been friends with them for years.  They have three boys.  When you add in our two it is a titch chaotic but really fun and funny!

Day 33- Eating Southern Style!

Having a family dinner at the Loveless Cafe

By 11:00 this morning it was 98 degrees out.  We pretty much stayed inside in the AC all day.  It didn't seem like we did much today until I started thinking about what to write.  Brooke and I picked Kolby up from a sleepover, the kids got plenty of screen time, Len and Brooke made homemade soup, I played with Sierra's hair and put it in pretty French braids, the kids went across the street to help Sierra feed the birds (she is animal sitting), I answered some school emails, we brought Kolby to band rehearsal and we got time to visit and lounge!

Sierra was so excited to share fried green tomatoes with us!

The Southern neon Loveless Cafe sign

 Tonight we went out for a "real" Southern dinner.  We went to The Loveless Cafe just outside of Nashville.  It is a well known cafe that has been featured on several different food shows.  We know of it being on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  There was a 45 minute wait before we were seated.  When the table was ready we were summoned by "Party of seven y'all's tables is ready." We all (adults and kids) get along so well that it wasn't difficult to decide on ordering the "family supper."  This meal came with  (endless plates of) 2 meats, 4 sides, biscuits, and a drink for each person.  We all decided on pulled pork BBQ, fried chicken, creamed corn, mashed potatoes w/gravy, fried green tomatoes, mac n cheese, and green beans.  The biscuits were awesome!  Actually, everything was awesome.  Sierra was so excited for us to try the fried green tomatoes.  I will admit I was a bit skeptical but they were very good!  We also were unsure of the creamed corn but I can assure you it is the best creamed corn we have ever had! As we were waiting to be called, we looked at all of the pictures of the famous people that had visited.  We saw photos of Lady Antebellum, Captain Kangaroo, Willard Scott, Kenny Chesney, and tons more.  The walls were covered with 8x10s of signed photos. We all ate way too much and packed into the cars to head home.  On the way home we took the Nachez Trace Parkway which is a scenic route that runs from Nashville,Tennessee to  Nachez, Mississippi.  It took us a bit longer to get home but the drive was worth it. Along the way we saw plenty of wildlife.  There were five bucks, several doe, and lots of wild turkeys.  Right now, Len, Duncan and Sierra are playing "The Game of Life," Douglas is fighting his drooping eyelids, Brooke is picking up Kolby from band, Brett is changing out of his work clothes and I am blogging again!  It is a house full of ordinary, happy sounds.  So very happy to be here with Brooke and her family!  Tomorrow more heat and humidity is predicted.  We are planning to go into Nashville and to go swimming at a local pool. So glad for central air down here!

Day 32- Arriving in Spring Hill, TN at Brooke's

Duncan & Len play football in the pool

Douglas doing tricks in the pool

Me and Brooke- very happy to see one another

Today has been a great day!  We had a very relaxing morning.  After having a late breakfast, we enjoyed the pool at the hotel for a bit.  Tennessee is having a heat wave so it was HOT when we woke up.  I think by 11:00 am this morning it was 89 degrees. We hung at the pool and played around until after 11:30.  I accidentally dropped Duncan's ipod and the glass screen broke.  So after we checked out of the hotel, Len and Dunc went to Best Buy to see what we could do to salvage things.  Douglas and I went to a nearby store to pick up a few groceries for lunch.  Then we hit the road!  We arrived at Brooke's house by 4:30.  We've done nothing but talk, make dinner and enjoy each other's company.  Sierra (12) serenaded us with her piano playing.  She is really good! The kids have played chess, watched TV, and played on the computer.  Not sure what is on the docket for tomorrow but I could care less!  I am just happy to be here with Brooke, Brett, Kolby and Sierra.  If we do nothing but sit and visit I will be a very happy camper!